So What Now?

With the results of the midterms in, we are looking at a Democratic controlled House and a stronger Republican controlled Senate.

With this, and with Mitch McConnell, whose job has been to obstruct any attempt at legislative accomplishment via collaboration and compromise through the past two administrations, as the leader of the Republican Senate, it is unlikely that anything really meaningful in terms of legislation will occur in the next two years. Instead, we will have another 2 years of a “do nothing” Congress and an increasingly frustrated President. If it sounds familiar, it is because Obama went through the same thing.

So, now with that out of the way, what should the two parties do in the meantime?

Let’s start with the Democrats. What the Democratic leadership in the House CAN do, and, in my opinion, SHOULD do, is focus on their message to voters for the next 2 years so that the voters can feel more involved in 2020.

This message should be on two fronts:

A) They should make clear the issues that are pressing and their stance on them, such as climate change, health care, etc. And they should BACK up their stances with action by passing legislation in the House, even if it is just for face value knowing that it won’t get anywhere in McConnell’s Senate or with Trump. At least the American voters will then know what the Democrats will do should they regain power in all three branches and can, therefore, feel informed as voters to make that decision at the polls in 2020.

B) Yes, they should open up promised investigations on Trump abuses, BUT THEY SHOULD NOT PURSUE INDICTMENTS OR ANY IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS. Pursuing the latter would not get past McConnell’s Senate anyways, and would therefore turn it into something that is only viewed by the public as a political stunt. Which, in turn, would see issues take a major backseat, polarize both parties even further, and turn the election into nothing but an entrenched tribal war. Instead, the Democrats should make clear to the public at the start that there will be no attempts at indictments or impeachment and that the sole purpose of subpoenas and investigations will be to open up greater transparency for the deserving American people, the voters. Then the American voters will feel even more informed and empowered to make the judgement themselves on whether or not Trump should remain in office via their 2020 vote in the new light of information.

The Republican’s approach should be more simple: Continue to fill judicial vacancies and obstruct on everything else. McConnell (and the Koch Brothers) know exactly what they are doing, and have been doing it for some time. They know that they are not in the majority opinion on most issues and this blueprint is the only way to keep the majority opinion from becoming practiced law. Furthermore, obstruction in the form of preventing any votes on meaningful legislature will even be more imperative over the next 2 years due to this being an election cycle for 22 Republican Senate seats, as opposed to just 12 Democratic Seats in 2020.

They should also attempt to paint the Democrats as hungry for impeachment, to rile up their base for the 2020 election. Which is why the Democratic leadership needs to make clear from the beginning that they will not be pursuing it.

A. The Trump presidency as always been about one and only one thing: Supreme Court Justices.

There are good odds that he will get another justice in the next two years.

There are good odds that he will get re-elected, and will then get one or two more justices.

That is all that the Republican Party cares about.

For Trump it doesn't matter... he will claim credit for anything good, and blame others for anything less than good.

Republicans where in charge of the least productive U.S. Congress in history, so more of that will not bother them.

To repeat "it" is and has only been about the Supreme Court.

B. Democrats.... more or less start from scratch. Get rid of the old guard... i.e. Hillary to Biden and everyone in between. The Democrats need to prove themselves to four groups: Women, Minorities, Young people and an working class men. The party needs to make up for the failings in 2016 which lead to so many young people not voting, and so many working class people either not voting or voting for Trump because they hated Hillary. One might say it is time for spring cleaning.

The House needs to keep some pressure on Trump, but only so the special council's probe can be finished. Impeachment should be off the table (unless something extraordinary happens.

The House should probably try to work with the Senate, at least to the point that any gridlock is clearly on the other side of the aisle.

A. The Trump presidency as always been about one and only one thing: Supreme Court Justices.

There are good odds that he will get another justice in the next two years.

There are good odds that he will get re-elected, and will then get one or two more justices.

That is all that the Republican Party cares about.

For Trump it doesn't matter... he will claim credit for anything good, and blame others for anything less than good.

Republicans where in charge of the least productive U.S. Congress in history, so more of that will not bother them.

To repeat "it" is and has only been about the Supreme Court.

B. Democrats.... more or less start from scratch. Get rid of the old guard... i.e. Hillary to Biden and everyone in between. The Democrats need to prove themselves to four groups: Women, Minorities, Young people and an working class men. The party needs to make up for the failings in 2016 which lead to so many young people not voting, and so many working class people either not voting or voting for Trump because they hated Hillary. One might say it is time for spring cleaning.

The House needs to keep some pressure on Trump, but only so the special council's probe can be finished. Impeachment should be off the table (unless something extraordinary happens.

The House should probably try to work with the Senate, at least to the point that any gridlock is clearly on the other side of the aisle.

etc

Yes. And the lower courts as well.

They may try and get Clarence Thomas to retire this term. There is no guarantee Trump will win a second term, and therefore Thomas’ age and past may be a liability second term.

At this point, it’s not about passing legislation but getting the courts to override any future Democratic legislation. Similar to what they’ve attempted with Social Security during FFR’s presidency and Obamacare.

And all the children holding hands thousand points of lights mice doing the cancan with port wine on tap served on little silver trays. Spoons knives and forks for bitty hands fingers and mouths. All praises to climate change all praises to universal healthcare all praises to Queen Nancy save us dear wench from the orange cat grabber